How to Leverage External Help to Successfully Grow a Team Quickly

Business leaders are always working toward growth, projecting and planning to achieve great things. When that growth becomes a reality, especially in a short timeframe, the need to scale up resources to support those efforts must be done quickly and successfully. That often poses some issues in making sure quality is maintained.

Whether the reasoning is increased sales, signing additional clients, increasing the scope of a current assignment, or meeting a new deadline, one of the most important factors for successful growth is human capital. Growing the team with competent new hires is a challenge all its own, only made worse when needed in a time crunch. Adding an extra hurdle, the extra personnel may only be needed for a few months until that project is complete.

When faced with these situations, some companies prefer to recruit talent to keep employees in-house, while others hire outside help as needed. Both strategies have pro and cons but, as in most business decisions, budgets and bottom lines play a large role.

If looking for an approach that will grow your team quickly while keeping expenses low, hiring external help can be a sound strategy. In today’s competitive global marketplace, outsourcing is a common business practice, but it is still fairly new to some companies. Fortunately, a wide variety of outsourced services are offered ranging from marketing, accounting, human resources, customer support, engineering and many others. In recent years, computer aided design – or CAD– has become one of the most outsourced services in the world across multiple industries such as architectural design, mechanical engineering and civil engineering.

As a starting point, there are a few core benefits to hiring an outsourcing partner. The most obvious is the additional bandwidth in a short period of time, allowing you to scale up when work is needed as well as the option to scale back down if a project concludes. Another valuable incentive is cost efficiencies, saving money by not needing to recruit, conduct on-the-job training or cover overhead costs.

While some might associate low costs with low quality, outsourced work with the right company is equal to or even higher quality than that of work completed internally due to the outside team being able to focus on the specific task at hand. Look for external partners with highly educated and experienced team members that have worked together for years as it’ll provide well-developed and mastered expertise.

Finally, outside assistance allows for pressures such as tight deadlines to be shared across a larger team keeping spirits high and likely increasing the team’s investment and overall productivity. An entire department can double or even triple in bandwidth almost instantly with little time wasted.

After considering all factors, if bringing on external help makes the most business sense, communication to your employees is vital for buy-in. Some people are naturally resistant to change with concern for job security or added work. However, studies show with early communication and transparency your internal team will be more likely to accept and even welcome the addition. Particularly, pointing out the benefits to them personally. Least of which and most motivating to individual perceptions is reduced pressures and workloads in the short-term as trained, expert help is integrated right away.

Team morale greatly impacts productivity and the success of a project. Making sure communication is clear during the hiring process will ensure a smooth transition. Once teams have bought in and are integrated with the new outsourcing partner, growth and success are on the horizon for your business.

Sandesh Joshi is the President and co-founder of Indovance Inc. Prior to founding Indovance, one of the leading CAD and drafting outsourcing service providers in the world, Sandesh worked at SolidWorks Corporation as a senior R&D member. He has a bachelor of mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, and a Master of Science from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC, with a specialization in CAD.